Tate will answer the call to her Octagon debut when she meets
Cat
Zingano at
“The Ultimate Fighter 17” Finale on Saturday at the Mandalay
Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The winner of the second-ever fight
between women in the UFC will coach opposite Rousey on Season 18 of
“The Ultimate Fighter” reality series and receive a coveted shot at
the champion.

Rousey submitted Tate with a first-round armbar under the Strikeforce
banner in March 2012. The loss provides some extra incentive.

“Every single 135-pounder out there should be looking at Ronda and
thinking of a way to beat her,” Tate told Sherdog.com. “I’m no
different. The only difference is I’ve had the opportunity to get
in there once before, and I do believe I will be the first woman to
ever face Ronda twice. I think that’s going to give me an
advantage.”

First, Tate must solve Zingano. The former two-division Ring of
Fire champion has finished six of her seven opponents -- three by
submission and three more by knockout or technical knockout.
Zingano, a 30-year-old Broomfield, Colo., native, last appeared
inside the
Invicta Fighting Championships promotion in October, when she
submitted Raquel
Pennington with a second-round rear-naked choke. The stakes
could not be clearer for Tate.

“I cannot look past her because if I lose that fight, it’s going to
be a huge detriment to my career, and there’s no way I’m going to
let that happen,” she said. “I’m not looking past her. I think
she’s going to be an incredibly tough opponent.”

Tate bounced back from her defeat to Rousey in August, when she
survived a head kick from Julie
Kedzie and submitted the Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts veteran
with an armbar of her own. She plans to rely on her guile and
toughness against Zingano.

“I just really think I cannot be broken,” Tate said. “I heard her
say she comes to try and break people. She’s not going to get that
out of me. I’m not going to break. I don’t understand that. I don’t
quit. I don’t break. You guys saw, I let my arm snap in half
[against Rousey]. I just don’t want to quit. I have none of that in
me. I think that’s really going to be frustrating and challenging
for her.”

In Zingano, Tate sees an almost mirror image of herself: a wrestler
with a heavy top game and fearless standup.

File
Photo

Zingano is 7-0.

“I don’t think I’ve ever fought anybody quite as similar [to me],”
she said. “She’s got a strong wrestling background, she’s got a
strong grappling background and she throws heavy, wild punches on
her feet.” With more than twice as much professional MMA experience
under her belt, including a Strikeforce headliner, Tate believes
she has a leg up on Zingano as they enter the uncharted territory
of the UFC’s Octagon.

“I feel I’m a little more seasoned,” she said. “I’m a little more
comfortable with the lights and the camera and the action, the
energy of the crowd when you walk out. I may not have experienced
it on a scale as grand as the UFC, but I have with Strikeforce. I
feel right at home here. Being a part of this feels right.”

This & That

A flyweight title bout between champion Demetrious
Johnson and John Moraga
was originally on “The Ultimate Fighter 17” Finale marquee, but an
injury to “Mighty Mouse” forced the UFC to go in another direction
...
Team Alpha Male’s Urijah Faber
has never lost a non-title bout under Zuffa employ ... Nearly 6,000
miles -- 5,848 to be exact -- separate Bart
Palaszewski’s birthplace in Warsaw, Poland, from his current
training camp in Wonder Lake, Ill. ... A decorated amateur
wrestler, Scott
Jorgensen was a three-time Pac-10 conference champion at Boise
State University ... Hawaiian heavyweight Travis
Brown has delivered five of his 13 career victories in less
than a minute, including eight- and nine-second finishes ... Since
he cut down 2006
Pride Fighting Championships open weight grand prix winner
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic with a highlight-reel head kick at UFC
70, Gabriel
Gonzaga has compiled a mediocre 6-5 record ... Former
two-division
Legacy Fighting Championship titleholder Daniel
Pineda has secured all 17 of his wins by knockout, technical
knockout or submission ...
American Top Team’s Cole Miller
was born in Augusta, Ga., home of The Masters, the most prestigious
tournament in golf ... Maximo
Blanco is one of five men to have held the lightweight King of
Pancrase
title, joining Shoji
Maruyama, Katsuya
Inoue, Koji Oishi and
Isao
Kobayashi ... Born on May 15, 1990, Justin
Lawrence shares a birthday with World Wrestling Entertainment
hall of famer Ron Simmons, award-winning sportscaster Dan Patrick,
former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright and Emmitt Smith,
the NFL’s all-time leading rusher ... Sam
Sicilia’s last 12 bouts have ended inside the first or second
round.